Chap. VI. MANNER OF FORMATION OF RACES. 225 



time of Aldrovandi, when in the year 1600 lie admired his 

 own Jacobins, Pouters, or Carriers, never reflected what their 

 descendants in the year 1860 would become : he would have 

 been astonished could he have seen our Jacobins, our improved 

 English Carriers, and our Pouters ; he would probabty have 

 denied that they were the descendants of his own once- 

 admired stock, and he would perhaps not have valued 

 them, for no other reason, as was written in 1765, "than 

 because they were not like what used to be thought good 

 when he was in the fancy." No one will attribute the 

 lengthened beak of the Carrier, the shortened beak of the 

 Short-faced Tumbler, the lengthened leg of the Pouter, the 

 more perfectly enclosed hood of the Jacobin, &c, — changes 

 effected since the time of Aldrovandi, or even since a much 

 later period, — to the direct and immediate action of the con- 

 ditions of life. For these several races have been modified in 

 various and even in directly opposite ways, though kept 

 under the same climate and treated in all respects in as nearly 

 uniform a manner as possible. Each slight change in the 

 length or shortness of the beak, in the length of leg, &c, has 

 no doubt been indirectly and remotely caused by some change 

 in the conditions to which the bird has been subjected, but 

 we must attribute the final result, as is manifest in those 

 cases of which we have any historical record, to the con- 

 tinued selection and accumulation of many slight successive 

 variations. 



The action of unconscious selection, as far as pigeons are 

 concerned, depends on a universal principle in human nature, 

 namely, on our rivalry, and desire to outdo our neighbours. 

 We see this in every fleeting fashion, even in our dress, and 

 it leads the fancier to endeavour to exaggerate every pecu- 

 liarity in his breeds. A great authority on pigeons, 44 says, 

 " Fanciers do not and will not admire a medium standard, 

 that is, half and half, which is neither here nor there, but 

 admire extremes." After remarking that the fancier of Short- 

 faced Beard Tumblers wishes for a very short beak, and that 

 the fancier of Long-faced Beard Tumblers wishes for a very 



** Eaton's 'Treatise on Pigeons,' 1858, p. 86. 

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